B Smith's Second Sticks talks with Yetee Osunsanmi, Deputy Director from the California Film Commission. The CFC handles a multitude of tasks related to film and television production in the state of California, but their most prominent action is administering the tax incentives provided to productions through Program 4.0, the $750 million dollar state tax incentive. The government increased the amount of money with the intent of both keeping productions in California as well as luring others back to the golden state. There has been some positive movement, but unfortunately not for the non-scripted sector. As of this time, only one non-scripted program ("Schooled", which was produced by Jimmy Kimmel's company) has been approved under the onerous guidelines, which require reality competition shows with budgets of $1 million dollars per episode. We talked about that, as well as the 2nd quarter production numbers in Los Angeles provided by FilmLA, which continue to paint a gloomy picture for the non-scripted sector (reality production days in Los Angeles are currently down 39.9% over the course of the last two years). Not a lot of happy stuff, folks! We do get into a number of other topics, and search for a glimmer of hope. I do want to thank my guest for joining me for what I hope is an informative episode! Please give this a listen and share, knowledge is power.

Show notes: Due to technical difficulties, the YouTube version of this episode will not be readily available. It will be posted at a later date, thanks.

Read about the California state Program 4.0, the film and tv production tax incentive:

https://film.ca.gov/tax-credit/

Read about FilmLA's 2nd quarter report regarding production statistics in the area:

https://filmla.com/research/#quarterly-reports

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To say that Lance Bowling lived a hard scrabble life growing up in a trailer in the midwest might be underplaying it. From the time Lance's dad broke his alarm clock on his 18th birthday, and sent him out into the world with a loan of $50, it was on Lance to home his own destiny. B Smith's Second Sticks recounts his journey which led him to Los Angeles and finally his forays in to tv production. With "a 5D and a dream," Lance and his partner built up F22 studios from the humble beginnings in his garage to the new resplendent F22 Studio and Rental Equipment Space, complete with a large soundstage and the Hill Valley Podcast Studio, which our YouTube subscribers will see on this episode. Lance and I talked about our humble midwest beginnings, our meeting on Hell's Kitchen, battling and finding purpose to keep working through Covid, the current state of non-scripted production in Los Angeles both for workers and vendors, and the specter of A.I. as described by the evolution of an A.I. Will Smith eating spaghetti. It's quite the ride! Come join us in this new space and time.

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Sports is a reality show; heroes, villains, drama, intrigue, and a (usually) clear sense of winners and losers. Sports is also entertainment, with millions and billions of dollars in play. And the people who do the production work to televise these events are subject to the same turbulent seas that may ultimately affect their lives in challenging ways. B Smith's Second Sticks talks with Shawn Kopelakis, my former boss at Fox Sports Net for many years. Shawn has lived both sides of the production coin: a long-time staffer who finally was given the choice to stay in a tenuous situation at Fox with an obvious end game, or take the life raft offered. For the past 10 years, Shawn, like many of us in the non-scripted game, has lived with the ebb and flow of free-lance work, with predictably unpredictable results. His insights are valuable, as he's seen the production world from both perspectives. We take the time to reminisce about sharing the outfield and locker room following the Anaheim (now Los Angeles) Angels World Series win in '02, and speculate about the future, including that of a young kicker from the University of Florida, Shawn's alma mater (Gator Chomp!). I hope you enjoy this unique view of an industry that in many ways mirrors our own.

Show notes:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnkopelakis/

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Anthony and Sandra McLemore are the paragon of the concept of “betting on yourself.” They co-produced and fully financed their show “Authentic Escapes”, which can be seen now on Amazon Prime and Roku, but had no promised buyer prior to their finishing the project. Their creative and courageous plunge into content creation outside of the traditional approaches is something we non-scripted folks should take notice of. B Smith’s Second Sticks sat down for a lengthy conversation with Anthony, his origins in the documentary and non-scripted worlds (including working on a show with the Jackson family during the untimely death of Michael Jackson) and the lead up to when he and his wife made the decision to bring their travel show concept to life, independent of the financing and support of networks or streamers. It’s a fascinating and illuminating look at the decisions that go into going all in on a particular vision. Give this one a listen and support independent production! 

Show links:

https://authenticescapestv.com

Instagram: @authenticescapestv

@sandratraveltv 

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=authentic%20escapes&i=instant-video&ref=nb_sb_ss_p13n-expert-pd-ops-ranker_1_6&crid=JI65R8WIU76R&sprefix=authen%2Cinstant-video%2C350

https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details/dc567e286d4ad341552ce5f5807bc628/authentic-escapes

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Pete Ozarowski, or Pete O, is a person who started life in motion and has never stopped. The non-scripted industry is filled with people who are steadfast and resilient, creative and inventive. All those words describe this man. Fun fact: Pete O actually created the "Second Sticks" moniker back in 2009, when he established a resale website for film and television production gear. I later joined him in this endeavor; the website still remains, as does the possibility of re-starting this great notion, but he was kind enough to let me appropriate the name for the podcast. B Smith's Second Sticks talks with Pete O about his production origins in Vermont as a PA and a body double for Sean Astin (links in show notes), his relocation to the West Coast, his long career as an AC and a Camera Operator on shows such as Fear Factor, Gray's Anatomy and many more, and his return to the east coast, where he presently lives in South Carolina. We recall his fantastic steady cam work on the "Kitty Girl" music video in Ru Paul's Drag Race All Stars 3; click the link in the show notes to see for yourself. We also talk about the need to reinvent ones self in the face of losing most everything, the survivor instinct that remains strong in many of us (present company included), and we fit in a little talk about the upcoming prospects for the 2026 Green Bay Packers. And, we laugh a lot! See you on the pod!

Show notes:

Icebreaker movie starring Sean Astin (whom Pete O worked as his body double)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179861/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_ql_1

Icebreaker, available to buy or rent on Amazon Prime

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.6e96fa7b-e481-440d-9e37-a61a150b1e9b?ref_=imdbref_tt_ov_wbr_ovf__pvt_aiv&tag=imdbtag_tt_ov_wbr_ovf__pvt_aiv-20

Ru Paul's Drag Race All Stars 3 - "Kitty Girl" music video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alq056oB4fE

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The concept of "Verticals" has become a hot and polarizing topic in the creator space. Verticals, or Micro-Dramas, is content created and meant to be consumed in a vertical, rather than a horizontal, manner. Think Quibi, which was the most prominent attempt in the US at vertical content, and although failing, was perhaps ahead of it's time. Now, studios and streamers in the United Sates are climbing onto the vertical bandwagon, which is crazy popular in other countries. Non-scripted might become part of this trend; Fox is re-releasing season 3 of its reality show, "Farmer Wants A Wife" in micro-series form (101 episodes in what they call a "mobile-first binge experiment."

B Smith's Second Sticks catches up with the mercurial Daniel Farnham, a DP/Director/Writer working in the micro-drama space. We get into Daniel's varied background as a jack-of-all-trades worker in non-scripted and other genres. It's his versatility that helped him adapt to the vertical space, where the on-set productions sometimes resemble that of a everyone-pitch-in student film vibe. Daniel's energy is apparent throughout the interview, as he breathlessly takes us through his micro-drama creator universe, similar in the way Roger Corman and other auteurs made movies quickly and cheaply in the 60's and 70's. It's a fascinating ride, and if you can open your mind to it, maybe it's another way to re-visualize the future of our industry.

Show notes:

Fox is Divvying Up "Farmer Wants A Wife" Season 3 into 101 Episodes for Holywater's My Drama Microdrama App:

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/farmer-wants-a-wife-microdrama-adapation-mydrama-app-1236765223/

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In part 2 of a 2 part podcast, B Smith's Second Sticks and Jon "Sarge" Schneider delve into the Ru Paul's Drag Race phenomena, the culture surrounding the show, and the unique energy that allowed Sarge to be comfortable enough to allow himself to transform into the character "Wintergreen" during a makeover challenge. We also talk about his short foray as a postal worker, as we encounter the reality that many non-scripted workers are having to seek other job options in order to simply make ends meet. The gist is that we, as workers in a very creative and now-unpredictable-more-than-ever industry, must understand how lucky we are to get to do something we love, and to not take that for granted when we do get to do it.

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B Smith's Second Stick's chops it up with friend of the pod Jon "Sarge" Schneider, in this two-part podcast! Sometimes it goes off the rails a little (like at the start) but it is a fun and in-depth ride as we dig into the origins of the name "Sarge", and his transition from Tank Commander in the military (for real!) to his short-lived radio career to ultimately his start in the non-scripted industry with The Real World. Throughout, Sarge maintains his sense of humor and fascination with the genre, and eventually finds his calling during the overnight production of these shows, getting an on-set education in the art of camera operating and story telling.

Show correction: I refer to my girlfriend as "my wife" early in the podcast. We aren't married, not yet anyway :)

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I'm always surprised as to how little that union members understand the inner workings of their unions. Therefore it is one of our goals at B Smith's Second Sticks to try and provide as much information from as many reliable sources as possible! We have a long talk with Selene Preston, Eastern Region Director of Photography/Camera Operator and National Assistant Secretary Treasurer of the International Cinematographers Guild (Local 600). Selene is a cameraperson through and through, and a champion of workers who has worked for years behind the scenes, rising to her current position in the Guild. We travel back to the time of the creation of the Unscripted Work Group, which has spent the last decade giving identity and a voice to unscripted union camera workers in the 600. We also touched on the situation with shows leaving our particular areas, and how the Eastern Region, and the New York/New Jersey area in particular, operates somewhat differently than things do on the West Coast. Ultimately, a strong union is going to be essential for us going forward in what will become the new normal, and Selene suggests ways that we can help make our unions stronger. If you have more questions (and there are no stupid questions), reach out to your union, it's essential!

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In the mid 2010's (you can debate the timeline), increased film and television production inspired more than a few workers in our industry to pick up and move to Georgia, seeking a cheaper cost of living and more industry work. By 2023, the production boom in Georgia started to dissipate for a number of reasons, not the least being an exodus of productions moving out of the United States. With this possibly being the new norm, I have to ask for the sake of today's podcast: is Malta the new Georgia? B Smith's Second Sticks speaks with old friend Ryan Rude, who made the move to Malta a year ago with his partner, and is finding an interesting work market. We discuss our origins together on season one of Hell's Kitchen, consider the legend of Sweet Boy, and track Ryan's career, including passing up a job position on The Office. We ultimately land on his decision to move out of the states to the beautiful surroundings of a small Mediterranean country and a unique production landscape. We also discuss the film Ryan co-produced and DP'd, "Wilma, Wu, and a stripper named Lorraine,' an indie film playing this coming weekend at the Dances With Films festival in Los Angeles this weekend (links in show notes). This is a robust conversation and a must-listen for anyone considering the possibility of taking a big step to move outside the familiar confines of the United States.

Show notes:

Dances with Films festival:

https://danceswithfilms.com/2026-wilma-wu-and-a-stripper-named-lorraine/

See the trailer for the movie:

https://vimeo.com/1190818506

Information on the movie's Instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/wilmawulorrainemovie

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